While it is happy news for Malthe Thomsen ruling in court also calls for reflection for the many parents of teenagers who consider sending exchange students to the United States.

As it was the case with the Amanda Knox case parents have to teach their children to ask to be lawyered up if they are approached by the local authorities, even if the person representing the authorities wants as little as asking for directions.

Legal procedures are different in every country. It can be hard to understand that they can detain people in Italy for a full year before deciding whether to raise charges. It can be hard to understand that a police department can build an entire case on statements made by a person known to be a drama queen and accept that this person is gone for months to another country stalling the investigation.

Legal procedures should be left with local lawyers and that is why exchange students need to call the Embassy the very minute a police officer approach them.

Malthe Thomsen could have made choices which would have stopped his ordeal within half an hour. A lawyer present during the interrogation would have both shorten the process and it would have kept him out of jail.

The lesson learned had a huge toll on this young man. Let his ordeal not be in vain for future exchange students. Learn to lawyer up right away!

Lene Espersen has announced that she is leaving Danish politics.That is goodbye to a woman who has meant so much for young Danes wishing to become an exchange student.

It was Lene Espersen who as minister for justice made it possible for the United States to get Camilla Broe extradited; an extradition process dragging out for years, which ended with a result clearing the name of Camilla Broe.

It sent a very clear message to parents of exchange students. Actions which are legal in Denmark might not be legal abroad. The actions might come back a decade later ending in years of legal processing and life quality lost.

So the number of exchange students has dropped during the last years. Second realizing that the quality of education systems abroad might not have the standard we expect in Denmark, the state no longer provides economically aid for exchange students.

A lot of issues regarding exchange student cases came to the light as result of the Camilla Broe case. It has meant that the Danish parents are less motivated to send their children abroad. For this the Danish population own Lene Espersen thank. Our culture is less likely to experience disturbances from exchange students returning home trying to adjust.

It is goodbye to a woman who has lived almost her entire life in politics. Now she will have to experience the torment of normal life among ordinary Danish citizen for the first time.

The Danish government has decided that they no longer will accredit exchange student agencies in Denmark. The number of failed trips has given the Danish government a bad reputation. While it is unfair because the old system only checked up on the Danish part of the entire operation as the authorities had no right to interfere with operations abroad as they are regulated by local authorities, the official approval of individual organization gave a kind of false security to the families who had children who were thinking of taking a year abroad.

It was a situation none could live with. Not the Danish government. No the families who put the safety of their children in jeopardy.

The end came with the unfair treatment of the exchange student who traveled to Gay Mills and was sent home when the foster mom hacked her Facebook account. The criminal act committed by the foster mom led the entire Denmark understand that the exchange student concept must be abandoned.

So what now? Well it is safe to say that the entire system of exchange students is very much a thing which went by in the past. It has no longer a future in Denmark. The business has been exposed and while some organizations like Rotary properly will continue to send students abroad just to make a kind of political statement, parents who are of their right minds will keep their children home.

It is very positive new as the Danish culture is small and very easy to pollute with impressions from the outside world. With fewer young Danes meeting foreign cultures our culture might look forward towards brighter times.

Denmark Radio has published the news that fewer families than before want to be host family for an exchange student.

And it is not surprising news in a country where the entire concept of a welfare society is under pressure. Social benefits have been cut. Longer work hours are a reality. Students have to attend school for a longer period every day which have led to the question whether the children belongs to their parents or the state.

There is not very much family time left over to socialize and have the surplus to take a foreigner from a perhaps less developed culture and integrate this individual into the family dynamics.

And as a host family it is important to know if the surplus exists. Otherwise the exchange student experience will not satisfactory for both the exchange student and the host family. Then it is better to avoid taking the task as a host family.

Whether the reduction of the number of exchange students as result of fewer exchange students will result a loss for the various communities is doubtful. Because the presence of a foreigner who is forbidden to socialize fully with the Danish students in the Friday bars on the high school campuses as result of their signature on a contract can create an artificial student environment where the mood among the students might not be as happy as if there hadn’t been exchange students present.

So the news that fewer families want to be host families is not bad. Maybe it could create a better student body on the long run.

A Belgian exchange student did jump to his death according to the authorities in the Philippines.

According to notes which was found in the students room, he spoke of weakness.

It is important to understand that some students cannot make it the full year and because exchange student trips are expensive they may hesitate asking to return home before time. They will maybe be ashamed that they have cost their family a lot of money without being able to complete the stay.

It is important to state to your child before the traveling that you as a parent does not consider a premature return as a defeat.

A 17 year old Danish exchange student was sent home from Wisconsin because she had consensual sex with a boy aged the same.

We find that there is a limit to how much you can ask young people to abstract from. If a state has an age limit for consensual relationships which are below the age of the exchange students who will travel there, the exchange student agencies should deny entry to that particular region.

We must urge the companies to refrain referring exchange students from Denmark if they cannot ensure decent conditions for the young people seeking a year abroad.

Just remember how many sacrifices the exchange students must endure:

They are not allowed to drink alcohol. Not even below the safe limit of 16.5 which have been proved by modern science.

They are not allowed to drive a car even if they have reached the age limit

They are not allowed to use drugs despite the fact that the population in most host countries is overmedicated with prescription medicine compared to Danish conditions

They will attend a school for a full year they under no circumstance would receive credits for because the standard of the Danish education is so much higher. The Danish department of education does not accept schooling outside Denmark because the schools abroad have no social dimension included in the services they provide their students.

This case involving the American Exchange student organization CETUSA and the Danish Explorius organization has made us mail all our contacts so we can start a campaign where we will urge parents of potential exchange students no to use those two organizations.

Arriving in a foreign country isolated from peers and family for the first time can be a mouthful for any human being. Taking into consideration that a teenager is not fully matured the challenge can so huge that time should be allowed for the teenager to deal with the challenge. It is bad that the teenager rarely leaves the room for the first 5 months? No it isn't. It takes time to adjust. Most host parents do experience difficulties understand how large the cultural barrier is. Remember that countries with a very developed youth culture like Denmark have Friday Bars where the students consume a beer or two before leaving school. It forces the students to open up to the other students and they are soon a part of the school life. Success at school enforces success at home. The student will be more likely to become an active member of the host family with a Friday bar on school campus, but sadly not all countries have such. Being left without the obvious choice of socialization isolation until the student feels safe is the only option. Any use of force to get the student out of the room will only increase the risk of the student abandoning the exchange experience. A host parent writes: Hello DeeDee, I agree that you have been through a lot. I had the same experience with my student. All he wanted to do was lie on the couch and watch DVDs or stay in his room. He is no longer with us. He didn't want to be part of the family and he didn't want to follow our rules so he asked to be moved. We had been trying to work with him but he chose to move. He thought when he asked to be moved that we would forget the rules. Boy, was he surprised! We increased the expectations of adherence to our rules. We gave him more chores and made sure the TV was never available. We made him come out with us. He complained bitterly. We told him if you want no rules then you better keep calling your AR to get you a new place because at our house, we have rules. We also kept up our calls to the AR, one every few days. We also called the 800 numbers several times, talked to managers, left frequent messages. They took him out of our home just to shut us up. The squeaky wheel gets rid of the bratty exchange student. It is amazing how much nicer our home is now that he is not stretched out on our family room couch with his feet up watching the blaring TV. No messes to clean, no one to torture our pets, and no disgruntled stranger wandering around our house at midnight. (Yes, he would often refuse to eat dinner with us and then wait until everyone was in bed before going downstairs to raid the fridge and pantry.) Keep the faith. You have a right to have rules and expectations in your home. These exchange students agreed to abide by the host's rules in order to learn the language and the culture. If they are so homesick or culturally closed, they shouldn't have left their country. I believe Mark Twain said it best, "if you expect things to be like home, then you should stay home." The text above illustrates the typical mistakes host parents do. It is no use to quote Mark Twain. What your home has experiences is cultural polluting. It is either something you need to accept or you can choose to end your job as a host parent before time so you can return to the family life your culture provide you with.Sources:Thinking About Hosting a Foreign Exchange Student (Wynia blog)

The Danish government has tried to increase the number of students from higher education school like universities who should take one semester abroad but their efforts have been slowed by their own wish to keep the education standard in Denmark as the highest in the world.

5 years ago the Danish parliament passed a law targeted against diploma mills. Under the new law only state accredited schools on friendly term with some officials in the Department of Education in Denmark had the right to call their school a university. Others had to close down, move their activities abroad or simply rename their schools.

Schools like Arabic Open Academy in Copenhagen was not targeted because the called their school an academy. They are still able to provide diplomas on higher education despite the fact that they are not accredited by the Department of Education. Among those who were targeted was a middle school in Copenhagen who had University as part of their name and a group of Artists who published their art using the term “University” as part of their name. European Management University International will move to another country so they can continue their activities. Knightbridge University has sieged their activities which are a huge problem for politicians from third world countries who all have to have a doctor degree to earn respect. Denmark’s reputation as a country that is aiding political stability and education in third world countries has been questioned as result of the new law.

But if you really want the highest education standard in the world you also have to ensure that the students don’t leave the country and return with a diploma from a foreign diploma mil. Evil rumors speak of Copenhagen being mismanaged regarding architecture and city planning because most of the employees in the office responsible for planning and constructing from 1950 to about 1990 all took their education in Sweden during the Second World War but couldn’t prove it due to damages which occurred during the war. If they ever passed their exams remains an open question.

So just to avoid a possible scandal every student is checked very carefully during a year-long process. In fact most have to wait until sometime after they have returned to learn whether their stay abroad is accredited. It is not acceptable seen from the point of view of the student who often has borrowed the money from the family or from a bank. A lot of students give up when they learn of the paperwork they have in front of them.

But what is the alternative? Chaos short to say! Everyone wants to have a paper which state that the final exam is from a Danish University and it has its cost when they have to put their name on such a paper. If you allowed everyone to study the last 6 months in Denmark after they have rested on a beach somewhere and paid for an exam with no academically effort would it not be cheating on a Lance Armstrong level?

Of course and that is why they have to check every single paper – even the one the students use for number two have to be multi-layered so it can be checked so we can keep the reputation of our education system intact.

This page doesn’t focus on higher education. Our purpose is to keep those Danish Exchange Students who take a gab year after passing the elementary school exams before they start their high school years. We have been asked many times why Danish exchange students cannot get credits from their year abroad. Again the answer is: Denmark has a higher education standard. Abroad they don’t take the social aspect of the students into consideration. Can you point at one country beside Denmark who has Friday bars in their high schools where the students can drink a beer of two after school? No, properly not. It is only one example of how important the social aspect is when it comes to education. In Denmark we don’t have school shootings because we don’t allow our students to isolate or marginalize themselves. Of course we have marginalized groups but they are not found in high schools or in universities. They are so to say sorted out from the youth population so they end up in Mcjobs job or on welfare benefits until they learn how to integrate themselves in our society.

We believe that other countries could learn from Denmark. Strict control limiting the number of students going abroad combined with soft social “control” securing that the students learn each other under friendly and relaxed terms lower the number of bullying cases and lonely students with the potentials of going amok.

Until the other countries catch up with implementing Friday bars on their high school campuses we will continue to deny exchange students credits for their time abroad. It is a question of maintaining a high education standard and our country’s good name – nothing less.